Movie Reviews

Thursday, May 19, 2011

We saw this movie at the theater while we were in Mexico. It was still in English, but had Spanish subtitles.

The story is about a doctor who has just arrived in Germany with his wife for a conference. He realizes that he left his briefcase at the airport, so he hails and cab to get it while his wife checks into the hotel. He's in an accident on the way to the airport, and ends up hospitalized. When he tracks his wife down, she doesn't recognize him, and someone else is posing as him. He sets out to find the truth with the help of the cab driver.

The movie was pretty interesting, but I was distracted by the way Liam Neeson speaks. It worked well in "The A Team", but not such much in this movie.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

This third movie in the Chronicles of Narnia series was well done as far as acting, special effects, etc., but I was almost bored. There just didn't seem to be a lot happening. The two oldest siblings didn't have much of a part in this one. I'm not sure if that played a part in my feelings about the movie or not, but since I liked the other two more than this one, I'm guessing it played at least a small role.

The critics (and many other people) didn't like "The Tourist", but I enjoyed it. Angelina Jolie plays a woman with connections to a wanted criminal (his crime was stealing A LOT of money). She's being tracked in an effort to find Alexander Pierce. She receives a note from Alexander telling her to find someone on a certain train of his height and build so the police will be thrown off track. Johnny Depp's character is who she picks. He's a tourist, and gets into all sorts of trouble because people think he is Alexander.

It had a lot of humor, and some suspense. I think I liked it because I figured it out. It's not that it was totally predictable though, so I felt sort of good for getting it (I'm usually very slow to catch on to these things).

Monday, May 16, 2011

Such a cute kids' show about a supervillian (Megamind) that doesn't know what to do when he actually defeats his rival, Metro Man. He ends up creating another hero so his life can have meaning again, but this new hero turns out to be a bad guy.

Overall it was very fun. I thought the Lord's name may have been taken in vain, and there is one part when the hero gone bad says something about there being no Easter Bunny or Toothfairy. He followed that up by saying their was no Queen of England, but it seems like for a little kids' movie, that should have been avoided all together.

Rachel McAdams plays a TV producer that gets hired to produce a failing network morning show. The job is what she's been wanting for ages (other than the failing show part of it), and she has to work very hard to try to get the ratings up.

Some parts of the show were pretty entertaining, but it's wasn't great.

This was a very interesting documentary about the many children that are in the lottery system for better educations, and how many public schools are failing. It was a bit heartbreaking following some of these kids, only to see that they weren't able to get into a school that could make a huge difference in their lives.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I watched this one. It was sort of cute (at times), but the whole story is just kind of crazy when I have to write it down.

Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who is getting older and really wants to have a child, but doesn't have a husband, or even the prospect of one. So, she decides to get pregnant via a sperm donor. Her best friend, played by Jason Bateman, is torn up by the whole idea, and he replaces the donor sperm with his own.

It was pretty predictable, and had awkward moments here and there. There are a lot better ways to spend your time than on this movie.

This film was about CIA agent Valerie Plame whose identity was leaked by the government when her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote articles about how the government had mislead the public about the reasons for invading Iraq.

It was very interesting. It would have been better with less profanity though.

This was a pretty sad movie about death. Matt Damon's character can communicate with the dead. This "gift" has made his life very difficult, as he learns things about the living that they might not want him to know. Or, they can't get past his ability and they use him to communicate with loved ones.

The movie also focuses on a few other people that have dealt with death. Once you saw these characters, you knew they were going to have to face death in some way. It was a pretty emotional movie.

I haven't seen the first X-Men movie, but we had some time to kill on a recent vacation, so we decided to watch this. Maybe watching it without having seen the first movie was a mistake, but I really didn't like X2. It wasn't bad enough that I turned it off, but it was just silly. And Wolverine's hair was totally distracting.

Colin Farrell plays a down and out fisherman in Ireland. One day he catches a woman in his net. She was nearly dead, but refused to go to the hospital. She said she didn't remember her name, and said to call her Ondine (meaning of the sea). Her singing brings Colin luck. Colin's daughter (who lives with his alcoholic ex-wife) believes that the woman is really a selkie (a mythical lady of the sea).

Deja Vu opens with a tragic ferry explosion. Denzel Washington's character works for ATF and is involved in the investigation. A group working for the government has developed some technology that allows them to bend time (kind of) and they can look back on things 4 days before. They follow some leads Denzel has and are able to use the technology to help solve the crime, with the hope that they might be able to prevent it.

So, it's a bit strange, and some parts are just gross, but the acting was good and it kept my attention (although I was looking away a time or two).

"Unstoppable" stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. Both work for the railroad. There is a runaway freight train that is headed into very populated area. Its freight is quite dangerous, and many lives are at stake. Denzel and Chris come up with a plan to try to stop the train.

Overall the movie was pretty enjoyable. Matt was put off by some of the seemingly casual conversation during the moments that should have been only tense. I didn't care for some of the railroad language.

I recently listened to the "Jane Eyre" audiobook, and LOVED the story. It was quite long, but such an interesting story (especially considering that it was written in the mid-1800s). I immediately Googled what movies were available, and found that a new version was just coming out. I was so excited to see it! Then I found out that it was a limited release. But, after a month or so, it came to a local theater and I got some friends together to watch it with me.

Although the movie starts in the middle of the story and uses flashbacks to cover Jane's early life, I thought it was well done. I think almost everything important was included. Unfortunately, the end was HORRIBLE! So short, and Mr. Rochester was gagable in his unkempt appearance.

My friends and I decided we need to have another girls' night to watch the 2006 BBC version.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Again, another show that the trailer makers did a great job; however, it bit, and it bit hard.

The acting was ok, but . . . the overall movie was just bad.

Marni was a major nerd in high school, and was teased mercilessly by Joanna (beautiful cheerleader). But, she's become successful in her job and life is going well. She comes home for her brother's wedding, and it turns out he's marrying Joanna. Things get awkward.

Marni's mom tries to get her to focus on the present instead of the past, and gets her past thrown in her face when her ex-best friend ends up being Joanna's aunt. More awkwardness.

Revenge, awkwardness. Attempted revenge, more awkwardness. Funky wedding planner that has a thing for singing and dancing, more awkwardness.

This show isn't worth watching. I caved due to a free baby-sitter (thanks Ash) and Kevin James (Hitch, King of Queens). However, the movie was just one awkward situation after another. I did know going into it that Vince Vaughn's character sees his best friend (Keven James' character)'s wife with another guy, and he's torn about telling his friend. But, the trailer made it look like a good show. Those trailer makers sure do a good job getting people in seats, even when the movie really bites.

Channing Tatum is in this too. I'd only seen him in "Dear John", and I thought his character in that show was a pretty good guy (withstood Amanda Seyfried's blatant temptations when she was married to someone else). "Dear John" ruined Amanda Seyfried for me, and "The Dilemma" ruined Channing Tatum for me. I'm not sure why I continue to watch anything with Vince Vaughn though. His movies seem to be all sorts of awkward situations. Kevin James isn't totally ruined for me yet. I may just have to stick to watching King of Queen's reruns though.

Matt took me to see this on my birthday. True, it's more of a Matt-film than and Andrea-film, but it was very well done.

The acting was great. Although, Matt Damon with a mustache and a funky Texas Ranger accent didn't do anything for me.

The non-use of contractions was odd. It took a little bit to figure out what was so squirly about how they were talking, but once you noticed, it was distracting. I imagine that this was done based on people really not using contractions back in the day. I'm quite a fan of contractions.

Some of the scenes were a bit violent for my taste (ie. I closed by eyes, but not soon enough-dang knife and fingers part).

I'm not sure that I'd recommend it, because of a few graphic violence scenes, but it was well done.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

I took the kids to see this over Zoie's Christmas break. Zoie and I really liked it, and Jonas kept asking to leave.

I would definitely see it again, and we will probably own it at some point. It was probably a little more enjoyable for me because the actor who does the voice for Flynn (the main male character) is the guy who plays Chuck in the TV show Chuck.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The storyline for this movie was very interesting. Soviets had gotten their hands on American children when they were very young and trained them to be on their side to help overthrow governments when they were older. Somehow they got back to their parents or others to raise them (outside of the USSR), but they had this brainwashing instilled in them.

At the beginning of the movie, Angelina Jolie's character, Evelyn Salt (a CIA agent) is accused by a Russian of being one such Russian spy. She realizes her husband is in danger and runs from authorities to make sure he's ok.

The trailers for this movie made it look better than it was. But, it did keep me guessing. I had no idea if Salt was a good guy or a bad guy. Unfortunately, Jolie's fight scenes weren't very believable (and there were quite a few of them, so that was distracting). And, the movie is left wide open at the end.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The A-Team wasn't something I watched when I was little (I had other things on my mind when I was 3-6 years old). But, my husband was a fan, and rented this yesterday. When B.A. Baracus had his first scene, I said, "Mr. T", so that gives you and idea how familiar I am with the A-Team. ;)

Matt seemed a little disappointed in the film. I thought it was ok. I was in and out of the room changing laundry, and then I watched while I folded laundry.

I rented this a few weekends ago when Matt was out of town, because he had no desire to see it. However, I think he would have at least sort of liked it. It reminded me a lot of RED.

Ashton Kutcher plays an assassin who quits his job after meeting and falling in love with Jen (Katherine Heigl). They get married and have a happy life for three years or so, and then his old boss contacts him. He's not interested in getting back in his old line of work, but he suddenly finds himself on a kill list. People he thought were his friends, neighbors and co-workers are suddenly trying to kill him for a huge amount of money. His wife is very surprised, but fights alongside him.

So, it was an interesting show. I didn't love it, didn't hate it. People do get killed, and it's portrayed almost in a funny manner, which is just weird to me (since murder isn't funny).

Sunday, November 28, 2010

This was a pretty cute continuation of the Toy Story movies, but it had some definite scary parts (ie the crazy monkey). Zoie (7) really liked it, but I think she left the room once. Jonas (3) left the room several times and hid on my lap once or twice too.

Matt's parents gave this movie to Zoie for her birthday a few weeks ago and she really loves it. She and Jonas quote lines from it daily, and they've only seen it a handful of times.

Anyway, it was a cute cartoon about Vikings and dragons, and how the Vikings come to realize that they don't need to kill the dragons.

The voice of the main character was a total shock to me. It didn't really fit what I was expecting (it's the main character from Sorcerer's Apprentice, who has a Christian Slater-ish sound to his voice).

I was pretty excited to see the newest Harry Potter film. In anticipation I listened to the book. I know, I know, that can ruin a movie, but I hadn't read it since it came out in 2007, and I thought brushing up would be good.

For the most part I thought that the movie was pretty true to the book. There were some definite changes, but I found myself not bothered by most of them. I thought about why they didn't keep certain things by the book, and decided that most of what they did were time savers that still kept the main story line in tact.

My husband thought it was kind of boring, and I can see what he meant, although I didn't feel exactly the same way. I felt that the 7th book dragged on while Harry, Ron and Hermione are wandering around trying to find Horcruxes and hide. While some parts of the movie were a little slow moving, there was a lot of action.

Part of Matt's beef was that the whole 2 1/2 hour movie was spent finding and destroying one Horcrux. That's not all that happened, but as that is the main goal of the trio, it does seem like a lot of time spent on one item.

I thought where the movie ended was actually a pretty good spot. The trio had some success, so it wasn't leaving on a defeatist note (although they weren't the only ones with success, so there's the suspense angle).

Some of you may have been curious about nudity rumors you've heard. Having just listened to the book, I knew that the only nudity in the book would have been in Part II (near the end, and hopefully that part wouldn't be in the movie since it doesn't seem necessary-but when does Hollywood ever go for necessary). So, for a little refresher. The horcrux that the trio finds is a locket. They don't have the means to destroy it, and when they wear it it affects their moods (in a negative way). So, they take turns wearing it to carry the burden. When they finally get what they need to destroy the locket, Ron is the man given the task. But, the locket is trying to stop him, so he thinks all these things that aren't true (namely that Harry and Hermione have a relationship). With a bit of a cartoonish look to their images, you see Harry and Hermione apparently shirtless embracing and making out. Although I think the book did have a relationship between those two as one of Ron's fears, this definitely was not in the book. The shirtless-ness was totally unnecessary.

Anyway, I did like the movie, but it's not one for young kids that have probably seen the other movies. I'm looking forward to the final movie.

I saw this the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm still trying to process it. Not process as in I didn't get it, but process as in decide if I liked it or not.

It's about Retired and Extremely Dangerous ex-CIA agents. A group of these "oldies" gets on a hit list, and they get together to fight for their lives and figure out who is behind the kill orders on them.

I was laughing quite a bit. My confusion was just that some of it seemed like things I shouldn't be laughing over. You know, like when a bad guy gets blown up.

My favorite part was probably when Bruce Willis stepped out of a moving police car he'd stolen and he steps out of the way just in time for it to spin past him while he goes to shoot the guy who is trying to kill him (I'm doing it no justice, but you can probably see that part in a trailer if you Google it).

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Weird show that Matt picked. Rotten Tomatoes actually gave it a pretty good rating, but it was just strange. About a family that lives in City Island, Bronx, that doesn't communicate well at all. They all hide things from each other, and don't get along well. The dad, played by Andy Garcia, is a corrections officer and discovers that a new inmate is his son that he didn't know about. He takes him home, but doesn't tell the son or the rest of his family who the guy really is. Of course everything comes out in the end.

There were some entertaining and funny parts, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Horrible movie-don't waste your time. It's pretty depressing throughout, and will leave you needing to watch something else or read something or do whatever you can to get some happy thoughts in your mind.